Lowest amount of chips on the final table

You have the lowest amount of chips on the final table. Do you stand a chance on becoming ending in the top 3? If so what is the best way to get there?

Of course you do. I've seen players win the tournament starting as the shortstack on the table. You really only have two options when you look at your hand, fold or all in.

rcbstuff said:

You have the lowest amount of chips on the final table. Do you stand a chance on becoming ending in the top 3? If so what is the best way to get there?

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It depends.
What is your M?
What are the M's of the other players, especially those on your left?
What is the payout structure?

With an M of two or less, surrounded by big stacks, you are a long shot.
With an M of 8, with people between 10 and 20, you have a pretty good chance (assuming you know your stuff).

I think if you have an M of roughly <3 and the rest are average (roughly 15) and there are a couple over 25, you will get called with pretty much anything by people wanting to bust you.
If you have around 8, like SP said, when you shove you become a bit of a nuisance and people can't call you without a good hand. Having an M of 3 means you only need 2 double ups to get back to average stack(considering M=10-20 as average), so it's certainly not impossible to come back, and then no reason why you can't win from there.

I've come back from being short stack to win it, but you have to have a lot going for you - good run of cards and the other people not being very good helps. Seriously, though, as mentioned above, it really depends on how low you are - if you're down to 2 blinds, you're going to need a miracle, 4 or 5 blinds, tough but do-able. Either way, it's push or fold so you have to win some coin flips.

The problem her is that other players are looking at your stack also and there is a change for you to be "bullied". So you have to be real careful and know the table. I find it hard to come back from short stack because of this.

So many variables here... As said previously, just how little is your stack? Its not comfortable, but with an M of 10 - 12 its definitely possible. Once you fall below that your fold equity is so low you're probably gonna get called with just about anything.

It all depends on your stack in relation to the blinds and antes......if you have a playable stack but are still in last place then it doesn't matter and you still have a chance

shrimp29 said:

The problem her is that other players are looking at your stack also and there is a change for you to be "bullied". So you have to be real careful and know the table. I find it hard to come back from short stack because of this.

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Thats why you should never limp or just raise anything but all in. Any other way and you will get bullied, the only time you aren't instashoving is when you have a big hand preflop and want them to try and reraise ur min raise. This can be really dangerous though if you get more than one player into the pot.

I have won quite a few tournys heading into final table with the short stack, it takes a little luck and good timing, but its much easier to shove with marginal holdings, doubling up a few times and then waiting for more premium hands and shoving in position to get you back to an average stack. I think this is where position is critical and acting based on players that have acted before you, all the middle stacks just want to let the big stacks knock out the little stacks so you need to take advantage over the middle stacks who will be playing really tight.

As a rough approximation, you can assume your chance of winning is equal to your proportion of the total chips in play. You can increase that by some factor to account for the possibility of coming second or third, but whether that factor should be 2x or 3x or something else is a matter of conjecture.